Florida farmers bracing for strawberry price hike in coming months

The price of everything seems to be going up at the grocery store these days, and now you will likely be adding strawberries to that list.

The United States Department of Commerce says a tax on Mexican strawberries kicks in in November. The tax ranges from a little over 3% to 5.28% on berries imported between Nov. 1 and March 31.

Several Florida strawberry producers filed a petition in late 2025 saying Mexico's government and strawberry industry engaged in unfair trading practices.

"When I first started farming there was 250 farmers in Plant City," farmer Matt Parks said. "Now, we're down to about 50."

He said Mexican growers have undercut Florida prices for decades.

"It costs a substantial amount of money less than it does to farm in Mexico than it does here," farmer Matt Parks said.

Meanwhile, an economics professor said that the price increase per unit may be small, but after time it can really start to add up.

"If a duty or a tariff were to be put on Mexican strawberries, this would certainly lead to increases in the price of strawberries," University of Tampa economics professor Abby Hall said. "Now, this might be very small on a per unit basis, but if you add them up over time, that can be significant."

Hall said a duty may help Plant City growers, but it could also interfere with the year-round strawberry supply chain.

Parks said he doesn't want to see Florida growers be taken advantage of.

"If all the imports are the same besides labor, and then they can just sit there and dump these berries in for way cheaper than we can produce them for," Parks said.